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PILA

PILA, PILA LUSORTA (σφαῖρα), a ball. In this article it is
proposed to include an account, not merely of the different kinds of balls,
but of the exercises and also the games for which they were used by the
Greeks and Romans. The subject has been somewhat complicated in modern
treatises by regarding as games what what were
merely gymnastic or medico-gymnastic exercises. It will be more convenient
to keep them apart. Exercise merely for the sake of bodily health and vigour
and grace of movement was more commonly sought at all times of life among
these nations than exercise primarily for the sake of amusement, whereas the
converse is now the case: and there can be no doubt that the majority of
Greeks and Romans who indulged in so-called “games” at ball
were practising and exercising their muscles, not, as we should say,
“playing” : still, there were some notable exceptions,
which will be classed as games.

As regards the historical view of these exercises and games, we find the
earliest mention in two passages of the Odyssey (6.100); 8.370). In the former, where Nausicaa is playing with
her attendant maidens, the ball is merely tossed from one to the other, as a
graceful and [p. 2.422]healthy exercise, while (probably)
they danced in measured time (Athen.
1.14 d): in the passage of Apollonius (4.952), who no doubt had this scene in his mind, he speaks of
maidens playing σφαίρᾳπεριηγέϊ, where
Becq de Fouquières is certainly right in taking the adjective to
mean, not round, but circulating from hand to hand. In the other passage of
the Odyssey we have two performers dancing rhythmically, throwing up a ball,
and catching it as they danced: in fact, they may be classed as jugglers. As
far as we can trace the earliest Greek ballplay, it seems to have been of
the nature above described, a sort of adjunct to the dance and music,
forming, in fact, part of what we may call the figures of the dance.
According to Athenaeus, the practice long remained; for he cites (1.24 b)
Carystius of Pergamum as saying that it was still in vogue among the women
of Corcyra. It seems likely that the name βαλλαχράδαι, applied to Argive boys keeping festival, had
something to do with this choric ball-play (see Krause,
Gymnastik, i. p. 300; Grasberger, Erziehuung,
i. p. 89). It is useless to discuss the question whence came these
amusements or exercises to the Greeks: various opinions are given in Hdt. 1.68, Ath. 1.14 d.
Without, however, accepting as better than any other the theory that the
Spartans invented it (Athen. l.c.), we may notice
that it early had a strong hold, with other gymnastic exercises, at Sparta.
This is also indicated by the term σφαιρεῖς
applied to Spartan youths, i. e. those who were passing out of the stage of
ἔφηβοι, and were not yet reckoned as
ἄνδρες. The name was, no doubt,
applied to them because the ball-play formed an important element in the
gymnastic training at that precise age, probably accompanied with music, as
part of the choric exercise of the Spartans (Paus. 3.14; C. I. G. 1386, 1432;
Gilbert, Staatsalt. 1.68; Schömann,
Antiq. 264). From whatever country it was introduced the
exercise was highly regarded by the Athenians, who recognised the value for
general bodily health and development, afterwards elaborately insisted upon
by Galen and other medical authorities. The gymnasia had therefore a special
room (σφαιριστήριον) for the purpose [GYMNASIUM]; and Athenaeus
(1.19 a) tells of the distinction given to
Aristonicus of Carystus, the συσφαιριστὴς
of Alexander, who was made a citizen of Athens and honoured with a statue.
The fondness of Dionysius of Syracuse for the exercise is noticed by Cicero
(Tusc. 5.20, 60).

That it took root quite as strongly at Rome is abundantly shown in Latin
literature. It was, as Krause, Becker, and many others particularly notice,
played by all ages: men, and even old men, as well as boys, “without
loss of dignity.” This fact cannot, however, at any rate now, be
made, as even recent writers make it, a point of distinction between ancient
and modern customs. Among notable instances we may mention Augustus, who
took exercise with the pila and folliculus, until he was too old for anything but
the litter or a gentle walk (Suet. Aug. 83).
(For similar record of other emperors cf. Suet. Vesp. 20;
[Capitol.] M. Ant. 4; Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 30.)
Pliny (Plin. Ep. 3.1, 8) tells us of Spurinna, who made this exercise one of his
careful methods for preserving a green old age: Seneca (de brev.
Vit. 13) complains that many made such exercises the main object of
their life. In the well-known line of Horace (Sat. 1.5), when Maecenas goes to play at ball, Horace and Virgil
do not join him, on the ground that “pila lippis inimicum et ludere
crudis.” It is a curious comment on this passage, that Galen
specially notes that those who use other gymnastic exercises become,
“like the Litae of Homer, χωλοίτεῥυσοίτεπαραβλῶπέςτ᾽ὀφθαλμώ, while those who play
judiciously at ball escape such maladies.” It is necessary to
point out that the exercise was not indigenous at Rome. The old Roman
followed the severer exercises of hunting and riding: the pila came in with Greek customs (Hor. Sat. 2.2, 10). The Byzantine emperors combined the two in a sort
of “polo,” which will be described below. The Thermae at Rome
had their sphaeristerium for games at ball
[BALNEAE Vol. I. p. 283 a]:
this exercise was taken before the bath (Hor.
Sat. 1.6, 125; Mart.
7.32, 14.163). Attached to large
country-houses there was a similar court (cf. Plin.
Ep. 2.17, 5.6; VILLA). Where greater space was
wanted, the play was in the Campus Martins.

The Apparatus for playing.--In Oribasius, i. p. 529, we find
five kinds of balls mentioned, μικρά, μέση, μεγάλη,
εὐμεγεθής, κενή. Mistakes have been made in the endeavour
to construe the description which is there given of the uses of these balls
as though they were games, whereas they are merely medical gymnastics: in
many cases something like extension exercises with dumb-bells, since the
ball does not leave the hand at all. It is probable, however, that we may
assume the five sizes of balls to have been used in different games as well
as for exercises, and may possibly take five Roman
names for balls--(i.) harpastum, (ii.) pilatrigonalis or trigon, the pila par excellence, (iii.)
arenaria, (iv.) paganica, (v.) follis to
correspond; but it is more probable that areaaria is
only another name for the harpastum, the name
being given because the rules of the game permitted taking it at the
rebound, which was not allowed in trigon. Martial, in the Apophoreta, mentions only the other four without naming the
arenaria. The ordinary ball was stuffed with hair; see Anth.
Pal. 4.291: λίηνἔντριχόςεἰμι: τὰφύλλαδ᾽ἐμοῦκατακρύπτειτὰςτρίχας: ὴδὲτρύπηφαίνεταιοὐδαμόθεν.πολλοῖςπαιδαρίοιςἐμπαίζομαι: εἰδέτίςἐστινεἰςτὸβαλεῖνἀφυὴςἵσταταιὥσπερὄνος.

The last line does not, as some writers state refer to a term belonging
especially to σφαιριστική: the word
ὄνος is used of the vanquished in many
trials of skill. [BASILINDA OSTRAKINDA.] The
“quarters” or lappets (here called φύλλα) were often coloured (Ov.
Met. x. 262, pictae; Petron. 27, prasina). Seneca
uses the word commissurae for the seams where
they were sewn together (Q. N. 4.11). The hair-stuffed ball was no doubt
either of the two smallest sizes: the μικρὰσφαῖρα was the smallest and hardest of the balls, and is in Latin
the harpastum (Pollux, 9.105); and the pila
arenaria probably = the “pulverulentum harpastum.” The next in
size, also a hard ball, is the especial pila, the pilatrigonalis; and then follows the paganica (probably the μαλάκη of
Pollux), which was stuffed with feathers, and [p. 2.423]according to Martial (14.45) was
“tighter” (i. e. harder as well as smaller) “than the
follis and less so than the pila.” Its name was probably, as
Marquardt thinks, derived from its being used at games between the country
pagani, though it was not confined to them
(Mart. 7.32). Lastly we have the follis, the
κενή, or air-blown ball, in its
construction like our football, but not so used; for there is no trace of
football among the Romans.1

Beyond the balls and the court, or the measured space out of doors, and
perhaps armguards for the follis, neither Greeks nor Romans had any
apparatus for ball-play, as far as we know, until the late Byzantine age.
There is no trace of any sort of racquet or bat; for in the passage of Ovid,
Art. Am. 3.361, the reticulum is a network bag holding balls. Galen in his treatise
περὶτῆςσμικρᾶςσφαίρας makes a
special point of its economy as needing nothing πλὴνσφαίραςμόνης, and in contrasting the amusements which
require more apparatus he does not mention any game at ball: all our
accounts speak of striking with the hand or arm; and Martial, if any sort of
bat had existed, would have mentioned it in the Apophoreta. It may also be noticed that the game of tennis
was called “lusus pilae cum palma” in 1356 (Littré,
s. v. paume), whence our deduction would be that
the use of the racquet is later, and that the name (cumpalma) was given to the game when “fiving,” or
striking with the palm, was the only stroke, to distinguish it from those in
which catching was allowed. Possibly the arm-guards, before referred to, may
have been the genesis of a bat in later times; but whether the
“polo” which existed at Byzantium before the 11th century (see
below) was the first game in which the ball was struck with any implement,
it is impossible to say.

Technical Words.--It is necessary to explain shortly certain
words used technically of these exercises in Greek and Latin, and the more
so because many writers have imagined separate games in words which are
merely descriptive of the method in which the ball was thrown, whatever game
might be played. Many terms also which are distinguished should really be
taken as synonymous. Thus, to throw a ball to
another is διδοναι, βάλλειν, ἀφιέναι,dare, mittere, jactare: to catch it, λαμβάνειν, δέχεσθαι,accipere, excipere, captare: and so datatimludere means “to play at
catch,” i. e. merely toss backwards and forwards (Plaut.
Curc. 2.13, 17; Naev. ap. Non. 96, 15). The words remittere and reddere
(ἀντιπέμπειν, ἀνταφιέναι) mean to
throw the ball back to the sender. But there is
a totally different stroke when the ball is “fived;” that is,
is struck with the palm of the hand and either returned or sent sideways,
without being first caught and then thrown: in Latin this is expressed by
repercutere (Sen. de Ben.
2.17); when the ball is “fived” back to the sender--(Marquardt
in the Privatleben wrongly, we think, renders it zurückwerfen)--and when the ball is struck
sideways to a fresh player, by the words expulsare (Mart. 14.56) or expellere (Petron. 27). One would naturally suppose
that the Greek word ἀπόρραξις had the same
meaning; and though Pollux (9.105) and Eustathius (ad Od.
9.376) limit its use to making the ball rebound from the floor, it seems to
us that there can be little doubt that the primary
technical sense was striking with the hand instead
of throwing, and that it belonged to that sort of stroke applied variously
in various games or exercises, whether making the ball rebound against floor
or wall, or “flying” it to other players. We must also differ
from other writers who limit the words expulsimludere to this striking against a wall. (Johann Marquardt is still
further from the truth in making it=the βαλεῖνεὐτόνως of Galen, for that is simply a strong throw.)
Expulsimludere expresses the stroke with
the palm or the fore-arm: in its simplest form it is the hitting repeatedly
against a wall (one sort of ἀπόρραξις); as
in the picture given by Varro (ap. Non. 104, 27), “videbis Romae in
foro ante lanienas pueros pila expulsim ludere” : but it refers
to the method of the stroke, not to the game, and it
means therefore to strike the ball in that way of which the words expulsare or expellere
and also repercutere are used. Similarly
“raptim ludere” merely
expresses the method of play adopted by one who (like the medicurrens in harpastum) rapit or ἁρπάξει:
that is, catches the ball while it is flying between two other players.
Lastly, the feint of pretending to throw the ball to one person and actually
throwing it to another is probably expressed by the word φενίνδα (which also gave one name to a game: see
below), and also by ἐκκρούειν (Athen. 1.15 a), and in Latin by
fallere (Prop.
3.4, 5). In the lines of Saleius Bassus
(?), de laud. Pis. 172 (Poet. Lat. Min.
1.233), “volantem aut geminare pilam juvat aut revocare cadentem, Et
non sperato fugientem reddere gestu,” the geminare must = repercutere, to
return to the sender by a stroke with the hand (cf. Ter. Ad. 2.1, 19); the “revocare cadentem” to catch
it near the ground, and the last line to throw it
back after a difficult catch when the return had not been expected (not = φενίνδα,
where mittere rather than reddere would be used).

Ball-exercises.--Here we must class (i.) οὐρανία,datatimludere, which is the simple practice of
“catch,” and has its name because the ball is usually
thrown high in the air (Pollux, 9.106; Eustath. l.c.; Phot. s. v.), just as a high throw is now sometimes called a
“skier” : it might or might not be made a rhythmical
exercise by accompanying music and dance, as often is the Greek οὐρανία; (ii.) various forms of making the ball
rebound against a floor or wall, as described above; (iii.) various kinds of
posturing with the ball or throwing it forward with no object, except
muscular exercise and extension, which Antyllus describes (ap. Oribas. i. p.
528: see Becq de Fouquières, Jeux des Anciens,
195.)

Spthaeromachiae or games at ball: i.e.
those in [p. 2.424]which there are sides which win or lose. (i.) The game called ἐπίσκυρος (also ἐφηβικὴ and ἐπίκοινος: Poll.
9.104, Eustath. l.c.). In this game the ground was
marked by two base lines (γραμμαὶκατόπιν）
and another line drawn parallel to them through the middle of the ground,
presumably more than a stone's throw from them, which was called σκυ-ρος or λατύπη, because it was marked with finely-broken stones. The
ball was placed upon this line (whence the name ἐπίσκυρος), and the players started at the same moment from
their respective base lines. The player who could first seize the ball threw
it as far as he could towards the enemy's base line2 the object was to force the line of enemies back by constantly
returning the ball further and further over their heads until they were
driven over their own base line. Clearly, getting the first throw by fast
running at the start must have been an enormous advantage (cf. Schol. ad
Plat. Legg. i. p. 633 C). It is not improbable, though there
is no proof of it, that the contest of the pagani (whence the name paganica for the third-sized Roman ball) was a game
of this kind. It seems to have been regarded as a game for the young
(ἐφηβική), and for large numbers
(ἐπίκοινος). Nothing can have been
less like golf, to which Becq de Fouquieres (p. 203) seems to compare it,
when he says, “on le retrouve encore en Écosse.”

(ii.) Harpastum (or, by the older name,
Pheninda; in Athen. and Eustath. (φαινίνδα; in Clem. Alex. φενίνδα; in Etym. Mag. (φεννίς, φενίνδα, φενακίνδα).--This game cannot with
certainty be reconstructed, but the following seems to us an outline most
consistent with our authorities. (Galen, περὶτῆςσμικρᾶςσφαίρας: Sidon. Apoll. 5.17; Mart. 4.19, 7.32, 14.48; Athen.
1.25; Eustath. l.c.; Poll. 9.105.) We
have clearly two sides (i. e. it was a sphaeromachia), for Galen lays stress on the fact that there is
emulation (φιλοτιμία), which exercises the
ψυχή, as well as movements which
exercise the limbs and the eye: there are presumably base lines as goals,
without which it is hard to understand what he says about generalship
(στρατηγία), and positions won and lost
(φυλάττειντὸκτηθὲνἢἀνασώζειντὸμεθεθέν). The ground was then probably rectangular, the two
ends being base lines, and it was divided by a line in the centre (the
trames of Sidonius) into two equal camps.
There was always one “middle player,” a special feature of the
game, called mcdicurrens (Sidon.), or ὁμεταξύ (Galen: cf. vagus,Mart. 7.32), each side being probably so
represented in turn: how the “innings” of the medicurrens
ended, we do not know, but perhaps he gave up his place to one of the other
side whenever a point was scored against his side. One would fain imagine
two
“middle players,” one for each side, but the persistent use of
the singular both in Greek and Latin authorities would seem to preclude
this, and to necessitate some such explanation as is here attempted It is
probable that (as also in the quite distinct modern pallone) a ball dropping dead (i. e.
falling again after the first rebound) was a point against that side in
whose camp it dropped, and that a point was scored by that side which could
send it so as to drop over the base line of the enemy: whether a certain
number of points, or the highest score in a given time, decided the victory,
we do not know. That the ball could be caught, either as a volley or at the
first rebound, is clear from Mart. 14.48, and
agrees with the epithets pulverulenta and
arenaria. The ball was, no doubt, started
from one of the base lines, and the object of the medicurrens was to catch
it as it went past ( “praetervolantem ant superjectam,”
Sidon.), in which case he would have a great advantage in either throwing it
over the enemies' line or into some unguarded spot of their camp, where it
would fall dead, or throwing it to some friend who was advantageously
posted. The feint of throwing, expressed by φενίνδα, would clearly often be employed, as
also the φυγὴ (Eustath.) or καταστροφὴ (Antiphanes and Sidon.), i. e.
turning hastily back after an advance, so as to defend an unguarded spot;
for, as seems clear from Galen, the rest of the players could post
themselves forward or back as seemed best. They were also permitted to rush
upon the medicurrens, and úgrapple or wrestle with him, or one another, in
any way they chose, one side trying to spoil his catch, the other to protect
him and foil his assailants (cf. Galen, ὅτανσυνιστάμενοιπρὸςἀλλήλουςκαὶἀποκωλύοντεςὑφαρπάσαιτὸνμεταξύ, κ.τ.λ. For this purpose they may use ταρχηλισμός, ἀντιλήψειςπαλαιστρικαί,
&c. The τραχηλισμὸς [LUCTATIO, p. 84] explains Martial's description of
the game, “grandia qui vano colla labore facit.” The view here
proposed will explain Galen's words when he eulogises this game for all ages, on the ground that you can choose what
sort of muscles, and to what amount, you wish to exert:--“It exercises
one set of muscles in the advance, another in the retreat, another in
the spring sideways . . . also the hands when they try in various
postures to catch the balls . . . it also practises the eye, for if one
does not accurately mark the course of the ball one must miss the catch
. . . while in the wrestling part of it the θώραξ, ὀσφύς, &c., are exerted, or you can
take running . . . but if you are old and want milder exercise (τὸπρᾷον) you may exercise your arms and
rest your legs by throwing from a distance” (i. e. by playing back), “and you can take as little of the
wrestling as you please.” The σφοδρότατον, which involves throwing, running and wrestling, is
the place of medicurrens; the wrestling alone is the part of those who try
to thwart him: for the rest of the players the advance and the καταστροφὴ supply the running, without much
throwing, while others can stand almost at rest near their base and merely
throw when the ball comes to them. It is illustrated by the description of
Sidonius, where a bystander at the side is jostled into the middle of [p. 2.425]the game, “medicurrentis impulsu,”
and then knocked over by a rush in the catastropha. We have ventured to differ altogether on this point
from Johann Marquardt, who imagines three distinct games for three ages and
strengths: Galen's language points to one game in which different parts are
taken; and it is clear from Pollux 9.105 and from Clem. Alex.
Paed. 3.10, 50, that ἡμικρὰσφαῖρα is regarded as a finite well-known game, not several
games. As to the identity of pheninda with harpastum we have the positive
statement of Athenaeus that it was the old name of harpastum, the belief of
Pollux that it was, and the fact that in some places (Clem. Alex., l.c.) it still went by that name; and, moreover, no
writer mentions both games as distinct. It is no doubt possible that the
harpastum which Athenaeus played may have been more elaborate in its rules
than the pheninda, of which he quotes a description from Antiphanes. It
seems sometimes to be forgotten that the interval between these two writers
was as long as between Chaucer and our own time. The play in Antiphanes
seems to be as follows:--

There are several players; A (possibly = medicurrens) has caught the ball and
intends to throw it to B, which he eventually does, but meantime he slips
away from C (τὸνδ᾽ἔφευγε), misleads D
(τὸνδ᾽ἐξέκρουσε), and calls
E´s name as a feint (πλαγκταῖσιφωναῖς), though he has no intention of throwing it to him: the
last two lines express the flight of the ball passing over and beside the
medicurrens, and the verbs should probably be imperatives, giving the actual
cries of the players. It gives only a fragmentary view of the game, but so
far as it goes might be describing a portion of the harpastum of later
authors. For the spelling φενίνδα and its
connexion with (φενακίξω, see Johann
Marquardt, p. 15, note; Hermes, iii. p. 455;
Grasberger.

(iii.) TheTrigon.--This favourite Roman game
was not strictly a sphaeromachia (cf. Stat. Silv. praef.),
since there were not sides, but each played for
himself; still it was a legitimate game, played for winning and losing. The
following description may, as it seems to us, best meet the accounts which
we have. There were three players standing in the form of an equilateral
triangle: each player had one ball to start with, and played for his own
score; he would wish both his fellow-players to miss their strokes, and drop
the ball as often as possible. He might send his ball to either player
(presumably there was some rule about sending it fairly within their reach),
and he might do so either by catching the ball which came to him and
throwing it, or by “fiving” it, so as either to strike it back
to the sender (repercutere) or sideways to the third
player (expulsare). Obviously the most
disastrous position would be receiving three balls nearly at the same
time--if; for instance, his own ball is smartly “fived” back to
him, and almost simultaneously the two others have been sent to him;
obviously, also, C his easiest position was to receive only one ball at a
time with a fair interval before the next. p This may explain the vexed
passage of Mart. p 12.82 about the flatterer Menogenes--

To say, with Becker, that Menogenes was showing off is
own skill must be wrong; that would be the worst flattery; but, by
catching right and left two balls (not, of course, simultaneously, but as
nearly so as possible), instead of returning them sharply he could throw
them gently at certain intervals to his patron, so giving him time to deal
with the stroke of the third player, without dropping any of them. It is an
often repeated error, founded on a misconception of Mart. 7.72, 14.46, that the stroke
in the trigon was necessarily left-handed. The left-handed strokes are
merely the test of a good player. Probably all players who can make a good
stroke left-handed, can do so also with the right hand, but the converse
does not hold good. In this game the pilicrepus, or juggler (see below), was employed somewhat like a
marker at tennis or racquets, to count the won and lost strokes at the end
of a “rest” or “rally” ( “non quidem eas
quae inter manus lusu expellente vibrabant, sed eas quae in terrain
decidebant,” Petron. 27). The inference is that the catches had
not a positive value, but the winner was he who least often allowed the ball
to drop. As is the case with our markers, the pilicrepus, whose profession
led him to exhibit in the Thermae, often gave instruction to the
inexperienced; and in games he was probably the umpire of doubtful strokes.
This is, we think, the true explanation of the cut from the baths of Titus,
which represents four players and six balls. It is not a game at all, but
the pilicrepus, who alone is a bearded man, is teaching the art of playing
trigon to three young players, throwing in balls in succession, to practise
hand and eye; one of his pupils is learning to catch two balls “dextra
laevaque.” The game would be much faster than this lesson to
tirones, and the pilicrepus would stand aside, and count the failures aloud.
Seneca, complaining of the noise of ball-play at the baths, says, “Si
vero pilicrepus supervenit et numerare coepit, actum est.”

Lesson in Trigon. (From the Baths of Titus.)

(iv.) The Equestrian Sphaeromachia.--From Cinnamus (Hist. 6.4) it will be seen that the game played on
horseback by the Byzantine princes differed little from polo as it is now
played. The Emperor Manuel Comnenus (A.D. 143-1180) plays at this game,
“an exercise mustomary for emperors and princes for a long time
past” (ἀνέκαθεν), in which a
number of [p. 2.426]mounted players, divided into two equal
sides, throw down a leathern ball, “about the size of an
apple,” into a measured ground. The ball is placed in the middle: the
players start at full speed from their base lines towards it, “each
holding in his right hand a long stick of a certain length, with a broad
curved end” (καμπή); this
καμπὴ has a network of catgut; the
object is to strike the ball over the base line (πέρας). The game is “dangerous, as the rider has to
stoop low (ὑπτιάξειν) from his horse
and turn quickly according to the turns of the ball.” Manuel's
horse fell and rolled upon him, and, though he tried to remount and continue
the game, he was forced to take to his bed and defer an intended campaign.
[See also FOLLIS]

It remains only to speak of the pilicrepus, or
juggler with balls (also called pilaius), who, as
shown above, also acted as marker. We have many representations of single
performers, male and female, tossing up several balls; even throwing and
catching them with the feet ( “reddere planta,” Manil. 5.165).
A misunderstanding of this has perhaps caused the utterly erroneous notion
that the Romans played football. Ursus Togatus (Momms. Ephem.
Epigr. 1.55) was a juggler of this kind ( “vitrea qui primus
pila lusi decenter” ). It is an error of Krause
(Gymnastik, p. 303) to deduce (with Burette) from this
passage that the pilicrepus merely = “joueur de paume;” and a
still greater error to suppose that the games of
trigon, &c., could be played with glass balls. Ursus Togatus (as
Marquardt and Becq de Fouquieres rightly point out) was a juggler who
introduced glass balls in his performance as a novelty. As a pilicrepus he
tells us that he not only showed off his skill in the Thermae, but also
taught the art of playing at ball.

1
For the use of this ball, see FOLLIS:
probably its fitness for the old (Mart.
14.47) depended on the fact that there was little running
about, and no grappling (as in the harpastum), and not so quick a
return (since the ball was much less elastic) as in the trigon.
Though absolute proof is lacking, it is probable that the game was
played with an arm-guard, as shown on a coin of Gordian; and it is a
fair inference that the modern pallone,
played with similar blown balls and with
armguards, is a descendant of the follis, though possibly with altered and more elaborate
rules. For an account of pallone, see Story,
Roba di Roma.

2
This is clearly the sense of προανελόμενοιῥίπτουσιν in Pollux, which Johann Marquardt
misunderstands; he is also in error when he says that the players
might kick the ball as well as throw it (he
strangely cites as his authority Becq de Fouquières,
though that writer quotes no passage to prove it). We must repeat
that we cannot discover any trace of “football” in
Greek or Latin writers; and, further than this, Galen speaks of the
exercise in these games, to the muscles of the
arms by throwing, but of the legs by
running: had kicking the ball been within the rules, he
would certainly have mentioned it.